I just want to start off by saying: I have no earthly idea what I’m doing.

The first post of any blog or the first article of a new opinion column is always the worst. How does one go about introducing themselves in a way that showcases who they are and what they’re going to be writing about, all in a manner that is entertaining enough to draw in new readers and keep them coming back for the next post…the next article? You get the point.

So, here is my little introduction for you. Though this is very “45-second elevator speech” of me, in time, the topics I will write about will paint a much more detailed picture of who I am, who I want to be, and how I am going to get there.

Not quite copy and pasting from my interview live doc that I have never more than 2 mouse clicks away, hi! My name is Lauren Garrett. I am a finance major at a (primarily) engineering school in Hoboken, NJ. I started off my college career in Fall of 2021, majoring in Biomedical Engineering and with aspirations to be a world-renowned neonatal surgeon. Fast forward 2 years, and you would find that I took a (not-so-voluntary) gap year, where I experienced more. No, that wasn’t a typo—I am simply still trying to figure out how to explain that experience in just a sentence, and the best word that I’ve found is open-ended enough is just “more.” Following that year, I changed my major over to Finance with a corporate law career in my sights, kept BME as a minor, and made my way back up to Hoboken. Here, I live a peaceful and quiet life: alone, two cats, a consistent 21 to 24 credits per semester, a long-distance relationship going on 3 years, two jobs, and NYC not even a 30 minute bus ride away.

My plan thus far is to write about my experiences and challenges. From topics like job/internship/career changes and sticky situations, the fall from a flawless academic record, how to handle the perfectionist role one may have placed on themselves the moment they gained consciousness, to others like internal competition and how to manage the feeling of falling behind your classmates, travelling out of the country alone for the first time, weight struggles on both ends of the spectrum (including my favorite recipes to get back on track), and many more, I hope you enjoy this little project of mine just as much as I will.